Blood Lust: ReImagined
by ML Tordoff
Summary: Ryou has always thought something was different with him, ever since his absent father gave him the Millennium Ring. And for the first time, he knows why. Everything that goes wrong in his life is because of one thing and one thing only - the soul inside of the Ring - and it wants him. Can he fight the darkness or will he succumb to it? Rated M for sex, violence, and language.


*Author's Note: As I've said in the Author's Note of Chapter 18 of "Blood Lust", I am rewriting the story because I am unsatisfied with the original. Also as I said, I'm going to leave the original on my account so that you may compare the two; or even, may choose to re-read the original if you despise the rewrite. I hope you enjoy this as much as I'm going to.

*Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! though it would be pretty freakin' awesome to, wouldn't it?

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 **Chapter 1**

 **The Doppelganger**

Ryou Bakura sat curled up in the corner of the old leather couch, an open hard-cover book in his hands. The television set was on, but to him, it was only background noise that kept things from getting too quiet in the apartment. He was too interested in the book to pay any attention to the program that was airing across the screen.

"Host," a deep voice whispered. "Host, listen to me."

He didn't even blink, nor did he react when a transparent deadlier-looking doppelganger of himself appear in front of where he sat. It being an almost-mirrored version of him, had the same unique qualities that made Ryou who he was. The pure white hair was wilder than his vessel's, the chocolate brown eyes were tinted red and held a dark gleam inside of them, and the porcelain-skinned body was more muscled and at least a few inches taller than his vessel. His features seemed to be much more sharper as well, making the boyish teen look a few years older than what he was.

The doppelganger stood there for a long time, his dark eyes on the young Englishman, waiting for him to notice his visitor. Several minutes later, he realized that the other was too far absorbed in the pages of the worn book to take notice of anything. He doubted that even a monstrous storm crashing through the apartment would remove his vessel from the object on his lap.

Getting tired of waiting, he stole the book from the boy on the couch and through it against the wall, yelling, "Dammit, Host! Pay Attention!"

His vessel's eyes widened at the sight of the doppelganger and he froze in his spot, too shocked at the transparent teen in front of him to do anything. He couldn't even scream in terror as his brain was telling him to. His heart, though, began to race, and his breathing picked up.

"Don't you go getting scared now, Host, I need you alert and focused here."

Ryou gulped. The doppelganger was talking to him as if they were close or something. He wanted to scream, he really did, scream and run and hide somewhere that no one could ever find him. But the other must have sensed that because it leaned over him, planted its hands on either side of his body, and it trapped him there in the corner of the couch. "Pl-Please d-d-don't hurt m-me."

The dark eyes were narrowed on him and a trace of a scowl was on his lips. "I'm not going to hurt you. That would do me no good. Now stop being scared," he ordered as though a command would make the teen stop feeling fear. He sighed at the quiet whimper that escaped his vessel. "Damn humans," he muttered, stepping away, "Curse their emotions."

That was a weird thing to hear, at least to the teen it was.

"Look, I need your help, Host," the doppelganger said, looking at his vessel again. "It's important to the both of us, and I don't need you terrified of me right now, okay?" He waited for a response, but the only thing that came from the boy was a look of confusion. "Okay?" he repeated, anger on his tongue.

A quiet squeak.

"Whatever," he said, "I'm just gonna start talking." He sighed and sat on the old wooden coffee table in front of the teen. "I've been with you for awhile now, pretty much since you moved to this crappy place, and I've noticed a few things. One would be your poor choice in friends. I mean seriously, befriending that weakling Yugi Muto?" he scoffed at the name.

"Yugi's a great guy!" Ryou said, defending his friend. He realized what he did a moment later and shrunk back into the corner of the couch. He averted his eyes and played with the fabric of his pajama pants. "I...I mean...um..."

The doppelganger ignored the outburst and continued. "The other is that he has the Millennium Puzzle in his possession and I need it.. Now, normally, I'd just take over your body and steal it away from the weakling, but that other soul won't let me get within a mile of that brat. That's why I'm talking to you about this."

The boy just stared at him, his racing heart starting to slow and his breathing starting to revert back to normal. That was a good sign.

"As much as I don't want to, I'm asking for your help here," he says, dark eyes on his. "And you're going to help."

"S-says who?"

"Says me."

The Englishman gulped and asked quietly, stuttering, "D-do I...do I h-h-have t-to?"

"Yes," he answered. "Now, what I need from you is to follow my orders when I give them, okay? I'll continue to use your body whenever I feel like it, keep you safe like I've been doing, and you'll just obey my commands, understand?"

"N-no. I d-don't want t-t-to. I d-don't."

"You have no choice. You can't get rid of me and unfortunately, I can't get rid of you either otherwise, I would've been long gone controlling a body without any argument. So, let's try that again shall we?" He asks, "Do you understand?"

Even though he really didn't want to, Ryou nodded. He knew he had no choice. He had tried to get rid of the Millennium Ring before when he and his friends were on Maximilian Pegasus's island, but it just came right back to him. Nothing he tried to rid himself of the infernal jewelry ever seemed to work, not even dropping it into the ocean on his first trip to Domino City.

"Good. Now another thing I need to talk to you about. That human that insulted you earlier today in one of your classes," the doppelganger started, then said bluntly, "I'm going to kill him."

The boy's eyes went wide at that last part. He knew there was something that kept hurting those around him, but he didn't think that something would actually murder someone. That was wrong. Murder was wrong. His teacher was cruel today, saying mean things and telling his friends about what happened before, but murder wasn't the answer. And he tried to tell his doppelganger this.

The other didn't listen, though, only stood and looked down on the now-shaking teen. He rested a hand on the top of his head, feeling the soft fluffy hair there, and smirked. In a matter of seconds, he had control of the body they now shared, and he loved it. "So much better than that damn ring," he said aloud to no one as he stretched, the body aching only slightly as it formed around the soul inside of it.

Once he was adjusted, he simply just left the house, humming a haunting tune.

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*Author's Note: Okay, so I'm done with the first chapter of the rewrite. Let me know what you think and please, I do want your honest opinion. Do you think it's better or worse than the original?

Thanks for reading ^^


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